Tough Camp Verde course wins runners' respect in Cowboy Invitational

CAMP VERDE - There is one thing you have to remember about most high school cross country runners: The more difficult and demanding the course, the more they like it.

Given that criteria, runners competing in Saturday's Camp Verde Invitational found the challenging hill-laden course very much to their liking.

Camp Verde sophomore Dominic Pittman put it this way following Saturday's race: "I think this course is one of the most challenging course any of these schools are going to run this year, and one of the harder ones in the state. Most of the athletes run golf courses for cross country. With the hills of this course this is truly cross country."

And veteran senior Mingus runners Ryan Alexander and Zachary Peek, who have run cross country courses all over Arizona the past four years, said the Camp Verde course was exactly what cross country is supposed to be. "I loved the course," said Alexander. Added Peek: "This was a great course."

And while it was a challenging trek, the enthusiasm with which the runners greeted the course resulted in some impressive times. Camp Verde Coach Matt Malloy said that in most instances, the Cowboys' 5-kilometer course should be "the slowest course they will run all season." Surprisingly, he said, many runners turned in some of their best performances of the year.

While no team scores were tallied Saturday, Mingus' Meg Babcock turned in the best performance of the day, winning the girls' 10th-grade race with a 23:52 clocking.

A summary of all of Saturday's races with the top Camp Verde and Mingus performances is as follows:

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